很多爵士乐迷都认为“爵士乐已经死了”，而其主要原因就是大批大批的爵士宗师的过世，而新一代又显的那么青黄不接，不仅仅是体现在爵士音乐的表现技巧和手法上，更主要的是爵士文化的改变迁移以及创作水平上。不过话说回来，在新生代的一批爵士音乐家当中还是有一些值得关注和期待的人物，对于他们来说，可能并没有把爵士音乐开拓到一个新的纪元，但毕竟还是继承了那些大师的衣钵，而来自巴拿马的爵士钢琴家Danilo Perez就是其中之一。

目前隶属于verve/impulse!的Danilo Perez目前是他们旗下为数不多的拉丁爵士钢琴家，回头看看“impulse!”旗下的那些大师们，真正关注于拉丁爵士的真的并不多。而Danilo Perez作为90年代以后得成气候的新一代爵士音乐家，在他的音乐事业上是非常成功的，这要得利于来自Tommy LiPuma和Al Schmitt的栽培。而现在Danilo Perez更是成为了当今还在世伟大爵士SAX音乐家Wayne Shorter四重奏（Wayne Shorter Quartet）的成员之一，并在今年二月随队参加了香港的爵士音乐节.

by Scott Yanow
A brilliant pianist who has combined the bebop tradition with his Panamanian heritage, African elements, and a willingness to take chances, Danilo Perezs improvisations are fascinating to watch develop. In concert, he has been known to have his quartet improvising in four different time signatures simultaneously with surprisingly coherent results, and his originals tend to develop as they go along with surprising results. Perez started playing piano in Panama at age eight and, in 1985, moved to Boston to study at Berklee. He played with Jon Hendricks (1987) and Claudio Roditi (1988), and had a longtime association with Paquito DRivera. Danilo Perez gigged and recorded with Dizzy Gillespie during the trumpeters last years, and headed several sessions as a leader for Novus and Impulse, landing at GRP for 1998s Central Avenue. Several other albums followed, including 2000s Motherland.